Hearing this, Edward froze slightly.
Stop me? Who would try to stop me?
The True Creator-Adam? Cheek? The Seven Gods?
This entire plan was meant to prevent the Original Creator from awakening. Stopping him brought no benefit to any of them…so who would interfere?
The voice sounded again, tinged with amusement, "I imagine you're wondering who would be so bored as to try stopping you, aren't you?"
"…"
After a brief pause, the voice sank into a deeper tone:
"It's the Oldest One."
"The Oldest One is indeed long dead. After giving birth to a horde of messy Outer Gods and later splitting into the Primordial God Almighty and the Celestial Worthy, He died more thoroughly than thoroughly. But the gods of the Mysteries world are tenacious like that—especially the Oldest One and the Three Pillars. They can die…but they can never truly be annihilated."
"That is why He attempted to revive within me. And just as I fear His resurrection, He fears me as well—more accurately, He fears the system of powers that does not belong to the Mysteries world."
The voice carried a hint of smug pride.
"With the Mysteries world's own powers and methods, killing the Oldest One or the Three Pillars is impossible. One can only delay their awakening and resurrection. But if you borrow strength from an entirely different world—then the situation changes. Tremendously."
"Mortals would call it letting one rival devil drive out another."
"The Oldest One has clearly realised this too. Though His consciousness is heavily suppressed by me, and still quite a distance from resurrecting, as I said earlier—all Beyonder characteristics originate from the Oldest One. Even suppressed, though He cannot revive through others, He can still exert some influence."
"For example…Salazar Slytherin. The Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Even the 'Mirrored Original Creator.' All of these were His handiwork behind the scenes. I even suspect there might be something wrong with me as well. Ahem. Of course, these minor influences are trivial."
"But the ring of Outer Gods squatting outside Earth's barrier? That is troublesome."
"They have always coveted the portions of Sefirot remaining on Earth. They don't even need the Original Creator's influence—they would seize any opportunity to invade Earth, kill you, destroy the 'passage' between the two worlds, and then annihilate this world entirely."
"So…how do you plan to deal with them?"
"That's everything I wanted to say. Good luck! I hope we can meet again alive—rather than inside the stomach of a resurrected Original Creator."
The message ended there.
Edward fell into prolonged contemplation. Part of his mind focused on the matter of ascending the world's dimensional level; the other part pondered the possibility of the Oldest One's covert interference.
But the most troublesome thing of all was this—
Everything he had learned so far came solely from the "Creator's" one-sided explanation. Edward had no way to verify what was true and what was false.
For the first time, he truly understood Adam's previous dilemma—entrusting the future and all hope to a complete unknown. No one would willingly make such a choice, least of all someone like Adam, who carried an overwhelming desire to "save the world."
"Right…He just said the 'Mirrored Original Creator' was another trick of the Oldest One? But wasn't that thing created by the Primordial Demoness, Cheek? Isn't it a manifestation of the Witch Pathway's authority? Why would it have anything to do with the Original Creator?"
Could it be that the Oldest One intended to use the "Mirrored Original Creator" to resurrect?
Chaos.
Everything was too chaotic.
His thoughts tangled messily, threads of information intersecting and contradicting each other until he could no longer distinguish truth from illusion. Edward raised his arm and stared at the lines symbolising the Uniqueness, murmuring, "Well…try it and die trying, I guess."
———
The next morning.
Audrey was awakened by a shriek.
The "Evernight Goddess" sat upright on her bed, shock written across her face. She looked around in a panic, shouting, "Where…where am I? Medici? Medici! Medici, where did you go?!"
Audrey blinked in confusion, then immediately understood—
She has turned back into…Priscilla?
So she tested softly, "Priscilla?"
"???"
Priscilla turned her head, eyes wide as she exclaimed:
"Audrey?! You're here too? Where is this? I just went to sleep and woke up here. Medici…Medici and the others aren't responding to me anymore. It's like…like they disappeared!"
Audrey had no idea how to explain this. She glanced at Susie.
"Susie, do you know what happened?"
Susie shook her head. "I was sleeping really soundly last night. I didn't notice anything."
"Morning."
Lilith walked out of the bathroom while brushing her teeth. She approached Priscilla, pinched her soft cheek, and smiled:
"You're still cutest like this."
"Eh? Lilith?!"
Lilith said, "Don't worry. We just quietly brought you along to play while you were asleep."
"Really?"
Priscilla scratched her head. "Then what about Medici and the others?"
"Medici? They're free now."
"???"
Audrey immediately looked as if she wanted to speak but couldn't: Lilith…wasn't that a little too blunt? Wouldn't that be too big a blow for a child?
But after staring blankly for a few seconds, Priscilla suddenly let out a long breath and broke into a bright smile.
"That's great!"
Now Audrey was the one caught off guard. This reaction was completely unexpected!
"I've wanted to set Medici and the others free for a long time~ It was just a shame I could never do it. I knew they were unhappy being trapped in the underworld inside me, and they could never go do what they wanted."
Priscilla's smile grew even brighter. "But now it's fine! They're finally free! They don't have to be stuck by my side, and they can do whatever they want now!"
"Except…"
Her brows suddenly knitted with concern.
"Except…I finally managed to teach Medici to be a good person. After leaving, will he go back to being bad again? Ah…that would be such a headache."
Lilith laughed, rubbing her gently on the head.
"Don't worry. Medici will definitely remember your 'teachings' forever."
Then she winked at Audrey.
Audrey: All right. Clearly, I know nothing about what children actually think.
But then she frowned slightly.
If Priscilla had returned to "normal," then what about the Evernight Goddess who had been inside her? Had She simply left? Or…
No! She needed to tell Edward immediately!
When she arrived in the Great Hall, Edward was chatting happily with Cedric and the Weasley twins. Upon seeing Audrey approach, Cedric patted Edward's shoulder.
"Your girlfriend is here for you."
Edward bumped fists with the boys and laughed. "All right, we'll talk later."
He walked up to Audrey and lowered his voice.
"What's wrong?"
"The Evernight Goddess disappeared from Priscilla's body."
Edward smiled faintly. "Don't worry. I know. I was the one who sent Her out. I even asked Her for a little 'something' on Her way out."
"Eh? What is it?"
Edward made a silly face.
"A secret. All right—let's finish breakfast. We need to head back soon."
"So soon?"
"Mm."
At that moment Lilith arrived with Priscilla, who waved enthusiastically from a distance.
"Big Brother Edward!!"
Lilith's eyes suddenly sparkled.
"Edward, you advanced to Sequence 1?!"
Edward blinked, surprised. "You can tell just like that?"
She puffed up proudly.
"Of course! Miss Lilith and Edward share a deep spiritual connection~ Our hearts resonate!"
Then she tiptoed and patted his arm, speaking in an exaggerated raspy old-lady voice, "Ahh, young lad, in the blink of an eye you've grown to a higher Sequence than Miss Lilith. Truly, time shows no mercy…"
Edward flicked her forehead lightly.
"Go eat breakfast. We need to say goodbye to Professor Dumbledore soon."
Breakfast concluded amid Priscilla's endless stream of curious questions. Afterwards, the group made their way to the Headmaster's office to meet Dumbledore.
Today, Dumbledore was unusually not wearing his wizard robes. Instead, he had changed into a finely tailored suit. He stood before the mirror, adjusting his appearance. Seeing them enter, he conjured several sofas with a flick of his wand.
"Good thing you arrived in time. Otherwise, I would've had to go to the Ministry of Magic to find myself."
Edward chuckled.
"Professor, I forgot to ask yesterday—how does it feel to be Minister?"
"To be honest…it's nothing special."
Dumbledore blinked good-naturedly. "In times of peace, it wouldn't matter if you replaced the Minister with a pig. As long as Voldemort doesn't appear, all I need to do is show my face every now and then. With Scrimgeour and Moody at the Ministry, nothing major will go wrong."
"That's true."
"Speaking of which—"
Lilith suddenly pulled out a small box and tossed it lightly to Dumbledore. "I forgot to hand this to you yesterday."
"Oh? What's this?"
Adjusting his glasses, Dumbledore reached to open the lid.
"It contains Voldemort's soul."
"…Oh, my goodness."
Dumbledore's hands trembled, nearly dropping the box. "Next time you have news this important, you should tell me earlier, Miss Lilith."
Lilith giggled.
"Heehee, if we could catch him once, we can catch him easily again. No need to worry~"
Dumbledore shook the box slightly. "Voldemort's soul—as in a Horcrux?"
"Nope! The soul of Voldemort himself. Once he's dealt with, Voldemort will disappear completely."
"Oh, that is wonderful news."
Warm relief immediately spread across Dumbledore's face.
After all, Voldemort had always been a lingering thorn in his heart. From the day he personally took young Tom Riddle from the orphanage, to watching him gather followers, becoming the feared Dark Lord—Dumbledore had never stopped questioning whether he himself had been the one who created this tragedy.
His lifelong battle to destroy Voldemort had always been, in part, an attempt to atone for that mistake.
Even after learning from Edward about an entirely different system of power—one that made Voldemort far less threatening—Dumbledore could not fully rest. And when Voldemort later escaped into the "dwelling of gods," he worried again: What if Voldemort truly returned one day as an actual deity?
But now—finally—he could let go of that fear.
Edward spoke then.
"Professor, we came to say goodbye."
"Oh? You just returned yesterday. Leaving already?"
"Mm. There are very important matters we must take care of immediately. But I believe we'll be able to meet again soon."
Dumbledore paused, set the box down gently, and after hesitating several times, removed his glasses.
"Actually…I planned to ask you this in a few days."
He took a deep breath. "It's about…Ariana."
He stared at Edward, stunned, vulnerable.
"You met her…didn't you?"
The accidental death of Ariana—his sister—was the lifelong regret that haunted all three of those old men.
———
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